By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said Monday that it is considering curtailing the sum of money foreigners' bank accounts can hold to help prevent growing financial fraud through international phone calls.
It is also contemplating putting the upper limit of money transfers by foreign account holders and restricting them from using online banking services.
Since the beginning of the year, a person or groups, mostly ethnic Chinese fluent in Korean, have posed as a legitimate businesses, which they use to phone people to obtain credit card numbers, user names, passwords and other financial information.
They use the data, obtained through the so-called ``phishing,'' to make unauthorized financial gains. Bank accounts opened by foreigners here have been used for phishing scams as the money is transferred overseas via the accounts.
``Voice phishing has rapidly increased since March and people have to be cautious of any requests for their financial or personal data over the phone,'' a FSC official said.
He said to prevent international voice phishing, the regulator is considering putting an upper limit on account balances for foreigners and disallowing foreigners to carry out cash transfers through online banking for a certain period of time.
Domestic banks have been tightening rules on account opening and credit card issuance to unqualified customers or suspicious foreigners. They have also monitored those who are addressed in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan where many reported phishing phone calls originate.
The regulator is also looking into possible insurance fraud involving local tourists traveling in foreign countries. ``We are currently investigating a total of 900 individuals who have received insurance benefits on more than three occasions to check whether they faked accidents or illnesses overseas to get money from insurers,'' the official said.